Founder's day celebrations at Tata Steel plant

Jamshedpur, Mar 3: The 172nd birth anniversary of the great visionary Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was celebrated as founder's day with the Tata Sons Chairman Ratan N Tata participating in the celebrations organised at the Tata Steel factory in Jamshedpur.

Tata along with a host of dignitaries including Tata Steel Managing Director, HM Nerurkar, former Managing Directors B. Muthuraman and Dr JJ Irani and other officials of Tata Steel, Europe and associated companies paid floral tribute to the founder.

A two minute silence was observed to commemorate the 1989 incident, when several persons watching the founder's day celebration were killed in a major fire that broke out due to a firecracker splinter in the works.

Tata spent about two hours in the works watching the tableaux taken out by various divisions of Tata Steel, its associated companies and social organizations. Later, the Chairman inter-acted with the employees of the company as well as the citizens of the Steel City.

However, Tata closely guarded by his personal security staff, did not speak to media. Earlier, Tata visited the works and reviewed the ongoing expansion programme of the private steel major.

The Head of Corporate Affairs and Communication of Tata Steel, Prabhat Sharma said the first phase of the expansion will be commissioned by September while the ongoing expansion programme will be completed by Mar next year.

He said the expansion programme, which involved Rs.20,000 crores investment, was aimed to enhance the capacity from 6.7 million tones to 10 million tones.

"The expansion programme included installation of a three million tonne capacity blast furnance," he added.

Addressing a gathering at the postal park outside the Tata Steel works, Tata appreciated the people for maintaining the city as well as their contribution to the growth of the company.

He said Jamshedpur would set an example for the other cities in the country as far as urban development was concerned.